Five Emphases in the Lords Recovery by Witness Lee Training the Disciples to Enjoy His Invisible Presence On the evening of the day of His resurrection, He came back to His disciples. At that time the disciples were gathered together with the doors shut for fear of the Jews. Suddenly Jesus appeared to them and stood in their midst. At that time the disciples were all threatened. They were fearful and had no peace, so Jesus appeared to them as peace and said, “Peace be to you” (John 20:19). According to Luke 24:37, the disciples “were terrified and became frightened and thought they beheld a spirit.” But the Lord said, “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you behold Me having” (v. 39). The Lord came to them with a resurrected body (1 Cor. 15:44). How could He enter with bones and flesh into a closed room? Our limited mentality cannot comprehend it, but it is a fact! We have to receive it according to the divine revelation. He showed the disciples His hands and His side, and He breathed Himself into them as the Spirit (John 20:20-22). He had become the Spirit, yet He had flesh and bones. After His resurrection and before His ascension, He appeared to His disciples and disappeared. Although He disappeared from their sight, He was still within them as the Spirit. Before His death, the Lord’s presence was visible in the flesh. After His resurrection, His presence was invisible in the Spirit. His manifestations or appearings after His resurrection were to train the disciples to realize, to enjoy, and to practice His invisible presence, which is more available, prevailing, precious, rich, and real. This dear presence of His is the Spirit in His resurrection, whom He breathed into them and who will be with them all the time. Whether the disciples were conscious of His presence or not, He was with them all the time. For the sake of their weakness, He appeared to them in order to strengthen their faith in Him. When He disappeared from the disciples’ sight, they became disappointed. Because of the trial of the need of his living, Peter went fishing, and some of the other disciples followed him. They fished the whole night, but they did not catch one fish. All of a sudden Jesus appeared again (John 21:1-14). He appeared and disappeared, but actually He was always with them. The Christian life is a life of Jesus’ appearing and disappearing. Maybe in the morning a brother feels that Jesus is so present with him. He may have a very intimate time with the Lord to enjoy Him in His manifestation. Afterwards, this brother’s wife may do something or say something to make him unhappy. Then to this brother’s sensation, Jesus has disappeared. Seemingly, he lost Jesus, but actually Jesus is not gone. This brother may have lost the Lord’s manifestation, but the Lord always remains within him. All of this is a part of the biography of Jesus. Bringing Us into Glory to Consummate God’s New Creation Day by day the Lord is appearing and disappearing to sanctify us, to renew us, to transform us, and to conform us to His own image. Eventually, He will glorify us in His great appearing, His second coming. He will bring us all into glory, and our physical body will be glorified. According to Philippians 3:21, our body is a body of humiliation. It is damaged by sin, weakness, sickness, and death (Rom. 6:6; 7:24; 8:11). But it will eventually be conformed to Christ’s resurrected body saturated with God’s glory (Luke 24:26) and transcendent over corruption and death (Rom. 6:9). He will bring our body of humiliation into Himself as the glory. Now He is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27), and one day we will be in Him and with Him in the glory. That will consummate God’s new creation with us. Before we were regenerated, we were fully in the old creation. Regeneration made us a new creation, but we are not the new creation in full. We are in the process of becoming God’s new creation just as a butterfly gradually comes out of a cocoon. When Jesus comes again, we will be transfigured in our body into His glory. That will be the consummation of God’s new creation with us. This is the biography of Christ. (Five Emphases in the Lords Recovery, Chapter 3, Section 3)
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 23:42:41 +0000
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